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Maybe it is because I’m tired, a puppy has a way of changing your sleep patterns. So does a chronic illness like lupus and come to think of it so does a mind that won’t let go of something. Maybe it is because there is simply too much going on these days, or rather I am more aware of things on a global level thanks to items such as the internet and social media. At any rate, finding the reason why isn’t as important as doing something about it.
You see friends, I cannot fathom how we live these days. Fear and violence leading to hatred and then the awful cycle of fear and violence all over again. I know some of you demand an instance where you have shown hatred or violence and I shall have nothing to show for it. But as a global society, we have wandered further down a dark path because we are afraid.

What are we afraid of? What makes us so angry that we act out in violence and that spills to a hardened heart with no room for anything but hate? Studies say (that’s a bit like saying they tell us without know who they or them really is) as our worlds and beliefs collide more strongly with those of others in a “shrinking world” (relax the earth isn’t’ shrinking, although global warming might work a bit like drying your clothes on high heat in the clothes drier, who knows) we have more fear. We are afraid of things we don’t’ understand and things we don’t agree with suddenly become more common place or routine.

Those same studies say that as we grow more fearful of our comfortable space becoming filled with things we disagree with or dislike, we need to push back and make space for ourselves again. The problem is there is less space to be had now. Too many voices, people and such demanding what was once a wide and broad border.

As we struggle with now the item of fear and dread encroaching ever so much closer to our sanctuary we must respond. So we strike out. And when that doesn’t work (be it verbal or physical) we become angry with these beings. Who or what do they think they are to take over OUR place we cry.

And the cry is taken up by other members of our group and soon we are riled up with anger, and hate and violence. And it spills out. Into this ever smaller world. And that anger, that hate, that violence must be answered back. And away we go.

And here I sit, probably most people to be honest, in the middle shaking my head and wondering what is next. Knowing we can’t carry on this way unless our plan is to basically destroy anything that is not to our liking, understanding etc. We can’t continue down this path and hope to find good from it.

So we start small conversations. Pockets here and there for ideas, plans put into action and we hope they spread out to other groups. But we don’t know how to calm the fever of the anger and the hate and the violence. But we try.

What we need, I’ve come to the conclusion is a means to find balance and acceptance. We need to mend our fractured hearts, souls and relationships. We need to heal the illness comes with such hate and violence. We must find a means to forgive, to rise above, to find value and faith in that which we can especially when it is not our norm.

How you ask? And I shrug my shoulders knowing that in some places there are faith healers and herbalists to assist. In other places shamans, spiritual workers or energy workers. Maybe they can help us. And if not, perhaps, just maybe we find the answer in those stories of old when they were how we made meaning of the things we couldn’t otherwise explain.